wfn.org | Priest Arrested in Slaying of Guatemalan Human Rights Bishop

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29-July-1998 
98243 
 
    Priest Arrested in Slaying of Guatemalan 
    Human Rights Bishop 
 
    by Religion News Service 
 
WASHINGTON--A priest and a church cook have been arrested in the killing of 
Guatemalan Roman Catholic bishop Juan Gerardi, a human rights campaigner 
whose death was widely believed to be politically motivated. 
 
    Gerardi was found dead April 26, just two days after he released the 
first part of a report alleging widespread human rights abuses by the 
Guatemalan army and paramilitary forces loyal to the government during the 
Central American nation's 30-year civil war. 
 
    Investigating judge Isaias Figueroa Medina said the Rev. Mario Leonel 
Orantes Najera and Margarita Lopez were arrested at the San Sebastian 
Church where they and Gerardi worked. Orantes had discovered the body. 
 
    Gerardi's slaying created an international outcry and several human 
rights activists suggested death squads might have been involved in the 
killing.  Earlier this month, an associate of Gerardi in the Archbishop's 
Office on Human Rights, Ronalth Ochaeta, said he had told government 
investigators of two military officers he believed were involved in the 
slaying. 
 
    The investigating judge would not say whether the priest carried out 
the murder or was an accessory or accomplice. 
 
    Members of the high-level commission overseeing the investigation 
refused to comment on the new arrests. 
 
    "I cannot make any comment because there is a complete gag order," 
Interior Minister Rodolfo Mendoza told Reuters. 
 
    Catholic Church officials also refused to comment until they had more 
information. 
 
    Four days after the April murder, police arrested Carlos Enrique 
Vielman, a self-described drunkard, and formally charged him with the 
killing. 

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